Perks Guide Draft

[Balneator]

Any comments/suggestions on the following would be appreciated. Also anything you think I may have missed that should be included:

Also i'm unsure of the numbers on curing touch and lay on hands, if someone at 170 could tell me the numbers for those so i can give an accurate, is much appreciated .

Main Useful Keeper Perklines:

Blessing

This is imo one of the best keeper perklines after around lvl 150, the max hp bonus is great, the lay on hands heal is fairly fast to recharge and useful for keeping hp up between the big perks, one of which is the curing touch ability which you get at 170 NOT as it says in game at 160, however this is around a 4-7k heal depending on the amount of perks you have in blessing ending up at a 6900 heal at 220/blessing 10.

Bio Shielding

Another great perkline most will not be without. A huge absorb shield starting from Bio Shielding 3 eventually becoming a 10k absorb at level 10 along with fast ticking 500hp HoT healing for a total of 14.5k (if it doesn't hit your max hp first ) theres also a small AoE heal which is good for top up team members hp from damage shields etc and also setting off in raids to help out a bit there (see how much "healed for" spam you can get)

Holy Mark

This is a perkline that has some great specials and also some really nice mods including +200 evade clsc at level 10 along with a bit of AC and hp, however defensively bio shielding and blessing are better perk lines in general, evades will be ripped apart by mobs with high AR, whereas 10k absorb and heals will always ‘work’. Also Reaver would probably be maxed before this for the 2he required to get larger swords on at 200+, around 210 I may consider using it instead of Reaver once I have a 300 sword equipped and non oe and can max it. Specials in this line include a small HoT, an evades debuff, 240 AAD debuff and an AAO/AAD (Add All Offence/Add All Defence) debuff however as great as these sound, they still check 100% evade clsc so from a pvp point of view you really need to use them along with insight to have any effect, as if you can land these you can also land your alpha perks.

Reaver

This is the big DD/AR perkline, some very damaging specials you won’t want to be without at 220 for PvP and also very useful for getting on higher swords, however at lower levels I didn’t train this very much, preferring the defense given by Blessing/Bio Cocoon I took a few perks out of blessing around 207 to up my dd for pen mishs, however before this the general quality of tanks around your level may not be so good, and blessing/cocoon are great for saving yourself in sticky situations, or even tanking yourself.

Aura of Revival

Starting at lvl 10 and instantly upping your soloing power considerably this is a very potent defensive perk line up until around 130 or so when it starts to drop off in performance, this is when most take blessing instead, around 130-170… personally I reperked at 160 in preperation for curing touch at 170.

Those above are the most used perklines on a Keeper the most common endgame setup being: Bio cocoon 10, Reaver 10, Holy mark 10, Blessing 10.

Now a few of the lesser used perklines:

Street Samurai

Wielding a very very powerful +dmg modifier this perkline in combination with reaver can make you a powerful dd, however it is mostly useful at the higher levels when the +dmg starts to add up a bit more or if you're teaming and raiding a lot, if you're not getting hit much no reason to sacrifice the damage from this line in order to perk Holy Mark. Also has a few damage dealing specials to get you up on the dd even more.

Spatial Displacement

Possibly a good option for pvp with it’s snare and root resist, however with enervate up and some other items such as Might of the Revenant, roots generally aren’t too much of a problem if you know what you’re doing and in my opinion the perks here could be invested somewhere much more important. Also root removal later in the line make this a great one for the PvPer that just loves to hate fixers.

AI perks

Crusade

Yep, it’s the big one, I would say the best AI perkline we have for pvp and even pvm. Insight is an addalloff buff, evades clsc buff and small short HoT for the entire team, very useful for landing perks on mobs that usually won’t be perked. Force opponent is a DoT which scales with your 2he, meaning it’s effective from the moment you can get it up until 220. Purify is a somewhat ineffective area stun and large taunt, dependant on bio met and checking 140% Nano Resist it’s rather hard to land meaning it’s uses are somewhat limited. However it is still worth maxing this line to 10 for the higher Insight.

Champion of Heavy Infantry

This is the general 2he buff line, allowing you to get higher swords on earlier and also including some nice damage specials, I generally have this as high as possible while keeping AI tech 2 and insight 1 until I get a ql 300 sword on, if you’re levelling slower it may be worth using the perks in Insight but I tend to upgrade swords as often as possible, making it harder to keep insight high.

Alien Technology Expertise

Lets you use some higher alien gear such as NCU mems, AI armour and other nice gadgets. Simple as that. Training AI tech 3 requires you to have Bazzits Alien Library in your HUD, and this is gained thru a lengthy quest, the guides to which can be found quite easily.

Solitus Alpha Genome

This isn’t used a huge amount but above AI 20 or so I’d say it was a nice option, including some base stat buffs for getting tier and other armours higher, a 90% root resist perk lasting 15s and a +100 aad/aao buff lasting 25 seconds. Doesn’t sound long but it’s long enough to alpha a rooting class in PvP.

Solitus Beta Genome

Boasting some int/sense/psy for twinking and some armours, and also a nice heal at lvl 10 for pvp, although personally i'd take soli Alpha for the extra AR at lvl10 over the heal, unless you're perking a lot of the 'semi-evade' classes.

Atrox Primary Genome

This is possibly the most overpowered perk for pvp in game, Mongo Rage adding a HUGE 1500 AR for a limited time allowing you to alpha most of the most die-hard evades professions. However for PvM it has a limited use, having a DoT totalling 2.5k damage on ending, along with –1000 AR and a –1000 run speed snare, it is most useful for offloading perks into an evades profession.

Atrox Secondary Genome

A great addition of 320 dodge ranged on this line at perk level 3, and also some agil/sense/int/psy some of the atroxes weaker base attritibutes.

Opifex Secondary Genome
A blind and nanoskills debuff at perk level 3, possibly very useful in pvp (can't zone if you can't find the door unless you use the map maybe ) and also 3 ai levels is a fairly cheap investment.

Champion of Nano Combat
Something to consider at AI20+ instead of genome perks, this can really help with casting the higher nanos more easily and also has some nice DD specials that usually land much more easily than the other lines, especially in pvp, due to their Nano Resist check instead of evade clsc.

[A_dude]

Holy mark is a very good perk line, it`s a must if u wanna pvp, and in pvm it helps alot...when i didnt had it perked inferno dynas keep hiting me alot..when is perked i get 10-15 hits per dragon..very huge difference.

Reaver perkline it`s a must also, cuz it has perks with the biggest dmg..snd,painlance, cleave, transfix

Bio shielding also its great for its 10k absorb, and 3% reflect. +heals

And Blessing ofc , Max hp and Ct=7k heal ,Lay on hands 1.8k heal


And as a edit on MR, u dont realy get that amount of dmg when ending..cuz u can outheal it with healdelta

[BigT]

Ye, dmg on MR is halfed due to following To-Player dmg rules, plus it's affected by your AC's, so it's really not that big of a hit. The -AR sure does hurt tho...

As far as your most used, it really depends on your use of the toon.

A damage keeper setup for raiding will opt for SS over HM anyday, just because they don't plan on worrying about how much they're hit.

A soloing Keeper will most likely opt for the setup you have described in your guide.

A PvP keeper may play around abit w/ a combo of Spatial Displacement because fixers suck to chase... It's usefulness goes beyond the resistance due to the perk removals that come later in the line.

Suggestions:

• Little known fact is that Solitus Secondary has a nice heal at 10 that helps alot in PvP, just something to look into
• Even tho it doesn't add Energy Dmg, the Dodge Ranged isn't bad on Wit of the Atrox in Atrox Secondary, definitely noteworthy...
• Opifex Genomes have a blind in Secondary, which are always nice in PvP...

Oh yea, and I'm not sure how much 2he Artillery adds... (Narf your agent persona!!)

[jijie2004]

Solitus Alpha Genome

This isn’t use a huge amount but above AI 20 or so I’d say it was a nice option, including some base stat buffs for getting tier and other armours higher, a 90% root resist perk lasting 15s and a +100 aad/aao buff lasting 25 seconds. Doesn’t sound long but it’s long enough to alpha a rooting class in PvP.

This is the perkline every solitus should try to increase after AI 23, Tacky hack is worth having the ai tech line reseted, think about it, 90% root resist + the constant 25% aura = 115 % for 15sec, add MoR next to that it's a total 30sec immunity, kinda enough, add the 1% from the MoR if you got it equipped , 1% / mnem fragments and the NR from the differents ncus/viral compilers ingame, the IS rods, the roots wont be a problem for you.

[Righteous]

It's been said that people don't like to read, try to slim it down a bit to list format and it should be more successful.

It's also been said that people don't know how to read, so jazz it up with some font etc. later on and order it in a way that a toddler might be able to find out that AoR<Blessing after lvl 150.

[Balneator]

Oh yea, and I'm not sure how much 2he Artillery adds... (Narf your agent persona!!)

*cough* oops because of calling the general AI line artillery all the time it seems to be programmed in

good reason why a solo keeper would have the setup i described really, i solo a lot when I can

i'll add the stuff you mentioned, wasn't too sure on genome perks, something i'd look at at ai 20+ tbh and obviously didn't know about trox/opi ones apart from the obvious MR

Soli Alpha i'll leave a less used perk I think, as it is. The only use for it really is pvp. Unless a few more people say they use it more often, and I may change it...it's not something i'd personally have as a priority, and if i change everything on a viewpoint from one person i'll be here all year obviously the guide is always gonna have a touch of my opinions more than anyone elses in it, but then i wrote it

[Balneator]

It's been said that people don't like to read, try to slim it down a bit to list format and it should be more successful.

It's also been said that people don't know how to read, so jazz it up with some font etc. later on and order it in a way that a toddler might be able to find out that AoR<Blessing after lvl 150.

it's a dual action guide, informs ppl that wanna learn and makes the ones that don't go roll a different prof but yeah i was planning to make it funky colours at the end.

[edis]

Nice guide, even if it doesn't have all the viewpoints in it yet.

[Righteous]

edis when are they going to declare you the keeper professional already?

[Manaas]

when you grow wings righteous (so he technically should be one already)

[A_dude]

edis when are they going to declare you the keeper professional already?

hmm u mean gimp profesional?

[LordLucan]

Nice little guide for new keepers balneator, only thing I'd remind new keepers is that to train the third alien expertise perk, you need to do a quest, guides for which are easily found. Also, I'm solitus so doesn't affect me, but what about the Opifex Alpha genome line? Is it not as good as the Beta one? Just wondered why that's not there when the other 2 viable breeds have both listed.

My personal route, as I'm sure most peoples were was: Max bio shielding and aura of revival until 160, reperk AoR into Blessing then, extra points into reaver until all 3 of those are maxed ,then it's a question of SS or HM.

You should add a link to this in the keeper guides stickies, if you haven't done so already.

[Balneator]

Thanks for your input LordLucan, will add teh info about training AI tech 3, reason for the opifex alpha genome line to not be mentioned is...it hasn't been mentioned I basically started off with what i knew about and added other peoples ideas, and no one has mentioned opi alpha genome as being any use yet it will be going into this stickies, basically once i'm satisfied everyone has said what they wanted to say, and i'll add some coloured titles or something to it too.

[Manaas]

bal u do realise im gonna plaigerise everything posted here and put it in my guide =P

[Valkyrieval]

I have always kept a few levels of Champion of Nano Combat trained. I've found that the ability to be able to actually cast the keeper nanos at the level req, rather than, say, 10 levels later, outweighs most of the other AI perks.

It also means that you can cast better auras self-buffed.

And you can get by with infuses instead of moochies, making it much easier to find the buffs to run your best nanos, plus freeing up precious NCU for other buffs. I don't know about you, but I fill up pretty fast if I don't have a fixer NCU buff, which is not always readily available.

Finally, it gives you a couple of pretty decent damage perks. At level 200, my Nano Feast perk does like 2350 damage and is rarely resisted. And Bot Confinement does about 2K damage, plus a 20% nano damage debuff -- great if fighting mob or player with nukes.

[Negs]

I have always kept a few levels of Champion of Nano Combat trained. I've found that the ability to be able to actually cast the keeper nanos at the level req, rather than, say, 10 levels later, outweighs most of the other AI perks.

It also means that you can cast better auras self-buffed.

And you can get by with infuses instead of moochies, making it much easier to find the buffs to run your best nanos, plus freeing up precious NCU for other buffs. I don't know about you, but I fill up pretty fast if I don't have a fixer NCU buff, which is not always readily available.

Finally, it gives you a couple of pretty decent damage perks. At level 200, my Nano Feast perk does like 2350 damage and is rarely resisted. And Bot Confinement does about 2K damage, plus a 20% nano damage debuff -- great if fighting mob or player with nukes.

Same here, i usually toss my extra AI perks into Champion of nano combat, great help for us troxes ^_^

[Manaas]

but if you don't have that many ai levels then you're missing out the extra AR you get from champ of heavy inf and that has a nice DD perk that does about 3k damage(at 10 obvs) and at perk 10 you get a nice DoT perk which does solid damage

[Balneator]

Gonna put this in a new "guide to the guides thread" hopefully a few new guides will start coming through given the rather dated ones currently and i'll put the more relevant guides in there, may keep the old ones for a while as theres a lot of 'older' info that still hasn't been replaced, and slightly outdated advice is probably better than none Manaas if you could find me when i'm online and make a new thread with just your guide in i'll close it so it doesn't get spammed up with replies, can always update it if needed

[Berrenta]

Two things I have to input:

1) The Opi blind is acquired from level 3, not 2, of Opifex Secondary.

2) All breeds (except Solitus) have Primary and Secondary, instead of (respectively) Alpha and Beta. Soli is, of course, fine.

[Balneator]

Changed here and in the guide, thanks for spotting that